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Genpact - Q2 2024

August 8, 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2024 second quarter Genpact Limited earnings conference call. My name is Michelle, and I will be your conference moderator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. The replay of this call will be archived and made available on the IR section of Genpact's website. I would now like to turn the call over to Krista Bessinger, Head of Investor Relations at Genpact. Please proceed.

Krista Bessinger (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Michelle. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Genpact's Q2 2024 earnings conference call. We hope you had a chance to read our earnings press release, which was posted on the investor relations section of our website, genpact.com. Today, we have with us BK Kalra, President and CEO, and Mike Weiner, Chief Financial Officer. BK will start with a high-level overview of the quarter, and then Mike will cover our financial performance in greater detail before we take your questions. Please also note that during this call, we will make forward-looking statements, including statements about our business outlook, strategies, and long-term goals. These comments are based on our plans, predictions, and expectations as of today, which may change over time.

Actual results could differ materially due to a number of important risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors in our 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC. Also, during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have reconciled those to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings press release. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. And finally, this call, in its entirety, is being webcast from our investor relations website, and an audio replay and transcript will be available on our website in a few hours. With that, I'd like to turn it over to BK.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thank you, Krista. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report another strong quarter as we continue to successfully deliver on our three-plus-one execution framework. Revenue in Q2 reached $1.18 billion, up 6% year-over-year, above the high end of our guidance range, with better-than-expected performance across both Data-Tech-AI and Digital Operations. Gross margin of 35.4% and adjusted operating income margin of 16.9% also exceeded expectations, driven by operating efficiencies. We are on the right path and momentum is building. For context, in FY 2023, we grew roughly the revenue by $100 million on an absolute basis.

In 2024, we have already hit $100 million in incremental revenues in the first half of the year, with higher gross margin, all while continuing to invest in our top priorities. Unwavering focus on our three-plus-one execution framework is accelerating growth, and we will continue to build our execution muscle in the second half of the year with a continued focus on, one, strong partnerships, two, comprehensive Data-Tech-AI solutions, three, a simplified go-to-market approach, and our plus one, that is leading Genpact as our best credential for AI-first innovation. Let me walk you through the key highlights on each. First, on partnerships. We see a significant opportunity to accelerate revenue growth as we increase the strength of our partner relationships. To give you a sense, IT service and solution companies with mature partner operations typically generate 20%-50% of their revenue from partners.

For us, partner-related revenues was in low single digits in 2023. This represents a significant opportunity for Genpact. We started ramping our investments in our partnership organization at the beginning of this year, and at the end of second quarter, we have more than doubled the percentage of revenue generated by partners, with line of sight to generate significantly more in future periods. Growth to date has been driven by investing in world-class leadership team, driving awareness, improving go-to-market activations, and scaling delivery capabilities with a number of hyperscaler partners, including Microsoft, AWS, GCP, and other key partners like ServiceNow, Salesforce, Databricks, to just name a few. Second, on Data-Tech-AI, our focused go-to-market approach continued to drive accelerating revenue growth in quarter two. GenAI has significantly expanded our total addressable market and is increasingly becoming a driver of our business.

While the absolute numbers are still small, GenAI bookings in the first half of 2024 are already up more than 10 times compared to full year of 2023, with more than 95% of our GenAI bookings year to date contracted on non-FTE basis. We also now have more than 80 GenAI solutions in production environments with clients, either deployed or going live. Embedding AI into enterprise systems is a significant undertaking. It requires weaving AI into the very fabric of an organization, cutting across data engineering, conversational interfaces, existing IT systems, and ultimately weaving AI in end-to-end business processes. This represents a significant opportunity for Genpact. We play a critical role in leveraging AI to drive business transformation for our clients, because our deep domain expertise at the keystroke level is essential to the successful implementation of an AI-first, end-to-end business processes in production environments.

Let me give you a few examples. A leading global provider of financial technology solution has chosen Genpact to drive their business-wide transformation and increase scalability and efficiency through the use of GenAI. This is one of the large deals that we signed in second quarter, and GenAI is a significant part of the design. We are leveraging our banking domain, end-to-end process frameworks, and technology expertise, along with ServiceNow, to deliver a suite of AI solutions. These AI solutions are integrated with the client's existing IT systems, leveraging a large amount of unstructured data to drive competitive advantage and growth. This implementation has a potential to serve as a template that can be replicated across industries. I have talked before about how our deep domain allows us to bridge the gap between out-of-the-box solutions and what clients need on the ground to transform their business processes with GenAI.

This case study is a perfect example of that. Another example is the work we are doing with Mondelēz to address their need for upskilling and shorter ramp times for new employees, leveraging Genpact's Cora Knowledge Assist Platform to enable faster access to knowledge, insights, and standardized operating procedures. Or, for example, with ALDI SÜD. Here, we are transforming their retail operations in U.S. and Australia by leveraging data, technology, and AI solutions to drive agility and cost leadership, ultimately creating an exceptional customer experience and driving competitive growth. Our work for Amazon is another great example of AI. For Amazon, for their out-of-warranty device customer service in Europe, we have leveraged AI and Amazon Connect to create an end-to-end solution that integrates AI-powered chatbots and enables logistics management, a repair partner network, end-to-end tracking, and proactive customer notifications, all with minimal human interactions. These are just few examples.

At the end of the day, clients choose us for five key reasons: our deep domain data and AI expertise, comprehensive solutions, accelerating partner ecosystem, client-centric approach, and innovative technology, including our pre-built AI accelerators. In a world increasingly driven by advanced technologies, these strengths are more critical than ever and enable us to deliver solutions that keep our clients ahead of the curve. Coming back to the third element in our three-plus-one execution framework, which is simplification. We continue to streamline our go-to-market approach so that we can scale more efficiently. As an example, we have standardized our rate cards across our Data-Tech-AI service offerings, and we are reducing complexity in our end-to-end sales process by automating workflows and adopting AI contracting tools.

Finally, on leading with Genpact as our own best credential for AI-driven transformation, we hit a number of major milestones in second quarter. I'll give you 2 specific examples. First, we launched a new Cora AI assistant for our global IT help desk. Since launch, we have seen a 2x increase in user satisfaction and a 30% reduction in service desk staff. Our future roadmap includes Cora AI assistant for HR, finance, sourcing, and many other functions, and we aim for similar improvement across these functions. Second, AI Guru, our GenAI-powered learning coach, is making personalized learning recommendations for over 60,000 employees, increasing productivity and amplifying the collective knowledge of our internal experts. And that gets me to the talent.

Our employees are critical to our success, and we have made significant progress year to date, scaling our broader technology skills as part of our overall investment in Data-Tech-AI. On foundational GenAI, we have more than 100,000 employees who are actively learning, 70,000 have completed an entry-level training, and 18,000 have completed more advanced work. For GenAI delivery capabilities, we have 3,000 AI practitioners across the company. And for applied AI leadership, we are making a significant change at the most senior levels in the company. 85% of senior leaders will have gone through certification from schools like MIT by end of 2024. As we look ahead, we will continue to invest aggressively in our talent with a focus on practical application of advanced technologies. Now turning to guidance.

With another quarter of better-than-expected results and strong performance in the first half, we are raising our revenue and EPS outlook for the full year. We are increasing our revenue guidance by 150 basis points to 4%-5% growth on as-reported basis, up from 2.5%-3.5% previously. Similar to the last quarter, we are not assuming any improvement in the buying environment. We are simply reflecting our improved execution in our full year outlook. Guidance for gross margin and AOI margin for full year remains unchanged at 35.3% and 17%, respectively, as we continue to invest in our top priorities, partnerships, and advanced technologies in Data-Tech-AI to drive accelerating long-term growth.

For the full year, we are also raising our outlook of adjusted diluted EPS to reflect the strong performance we achieved in the first half, with a $0.14 increase at the midpoint of the range. In closing, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to every one of our employees. Your dedication is delivering exceptional value to our clients and driving success and growth for Genpact. As we continue to innovate and expand, your commitment is the cornerstone of our achievement. Thank you, and we continue to sharpen our competitive edge and build the next chapter of Genpact. With that, let me turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Thank you, BK, and good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate your time today as we review our financial performance in the second quarter of 2024, and provide insights into our outlook for the third quarter and full year. I'm pleased to report Genpact delivered another strong quarter, including an all-time high income from operations of $170 million. We continue to build the foundational improvements needed to drive sustainable growth and efficiencies. Our pipeline reached a record level in the second quarter, driven by a healthy mix of small, medium, and large deals. Generative AI contributed to our pipeline, also doubled in the first half of 2024. All this sets us up well for future growth. During the quarter, we added 23 new logos, bringing our first half total to 53 new logos, a 29% increase year-over-year.

We also booked 4 large deals in the quarter. Our win rate was 51%, while sole source deals accounted for approximately 45% of total bookings, highlighting our strong value proposition. We continue to deepen and broaden our client base. During the second quarter compared to the prior period, we expanded the number of client relationships, generating annual revenue greater than $5 million, from 180 to 185. We also increased the number of clients with annual revenue exceeding $25 million from 38 to 42, while 5 of these clients generated more than $100 million in revenue. Now, on to our income statement. Total revenue for the quarter was $1.176 billion, up 6% year-over-year as reported, and 7% on a constant currency basis.

This performance, which exceeded our expectations, is the result of renewed focus on driving results in data, tech and AI, and digital operations. Data, tech, and AI represents roughly 46% of total revenue in the second quarter and grew 4% year-over-year on both a reported and constant currency basis. Growth was primarily driven by supply chain and risk management service lines. Digital operations revenue increased 9% year-over-year on both a reported and constant currency basis, primarily due to ramp-ups of large deals. Digital operations accounted for 54% of total revenue in the quarter. Revenue contributed from outcome and consumption-based deals, which excludes fixed-fee contracts, continues to expand compared to prior year. It now comprises 20% of second quarter revenue, a milestone we achieved at the end of 2023. This recurring achievement demonstrates our commitments to meeting our long-term objectives.

Expanding these deals enables us to drive profitable growth and enhance value to our clients. Revenue from priority accounts grew approximately 7% year-over-year and comprised of 62% of total revenue. Now on to our three segments, all which delivered strong results. Revenue in consumer and healthcare grew 7%, while revenue in financial services, as well as high-tech manufacturing, increased approximately 6% year-over-year. The primary revenue growth drivers of all three segments remained largely unchanged from the prior quarters, reflecting stability and consistency in our business operations. Transitioning from top-line performance to gross margin of 35.4%, up 10 basis points from the prior-year quarter, driven by operational leverage and modestly lower stock-based compensation expense, partly offset by our annual comp cycle. Adjusted operating income margin was 16.9%, up 10 basis points year-over-year.

SG&A, as a percentage of revenue, declined 40 basis points year-over-year to 20.4%, driven by higher operating leverage, some of which results from our ongoing simplification efforts, offset by increased investments. Our effective tax rate was 24.9%, up from 22.7% in the prior year quarter, which had a discrete tax benefit. GAAP net income was $122 million, a 5% improvement year-over-year. GAAP diluted EPS rose to $0.67, a 6% increase year-over-year. Similarly, adjusted diluted EPS climbed to $0.79, up 10% from last year, outpacing revenue growth. We continue to generate significant cash from operations. We delivered $209 million compared to $171 million in the prior year period. Moving on to our balance sheet.

Cash and cash equivalents were $914 million, up $491 million at the end of the same period last year. The cash increase is primarily due to proceeds from our recent bond issuance, which will be used to repay upcoming bond maturities. Days sales outstanding decreased by 2 days versus last quarter. We delivered net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.9x for the quarter, at the low end of our preferred range. This positions us well for strategic investments and future growth opportunities. In the second quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.9 million shares at an aggregate cost of $63 million. We also paid $27 million in dividends. Overall, we returned approximately $90 million to our shareholders in the second quarter alone.

We remain committed to returning capital to shareholders and allocating a minimum of 30% of operating cash flow to share repurchases, in addition to the 20% annual dividends. Attrition remains at historical lows at 23% for the second quarter, at 200 basis points under the same quarter last year. Moving on to our expectations for the third quarter. We guided to total revenue in the range of $1.18 billion-$1.186 billion, a year-over-year growth of approximately 3.9%-4.4% as reported. This is comprised of Digital Operations and Data-Tech-AI revenue growth of approximately 3.8% and 4.6% versus the prior year period, respectively, at the midpoint of the range as reported.

Gross margin for the quarter is expected to be approximately 35.4%, consistent with prior quarter. Adjusted operating income margin is expected to be 17.2%, as we continue to invest for long-term growth. For the full year, we are raising our adjusted diluted EPS guide. We now project adjusted diluted EPS to be between $3.14 and $3.18. This represents a 14-cent increase at the midpoint of our previous guide and will mark the fourth consecutive year of delivering EPS growth that outpaces revenue. The year-over-year increase in EPS is driven by adjusted operating income of 14 cents and a 9-cent benefit from lower share count. The increases are forecast to be partially offset by higher interest expense of 3 cents and expected tax rate impact of 1 cent.

As BK mentioned, we are not anticipating a more favorable market conditions as the year progresses. We are primarily incorporating the strong performance in the first half into our projections for the full year. Specifically, we are now anticipating total revenue to be between $4.656 billion and $4.701 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 4%-5% as reported. This positive adjustment reflects digital operations revenue growth of 5.2% and approximately 3.8% in data tech and AI revenue growth at the midpoint. We continue to expect full-year gross margin to be approximately 35.3% and an adjusted operating income margin of 17%, highlighting our ability to maintain profitability while navigating uncertain economic and business environment and investing in our business.

We now anticipate to generate approximately $525 million in operating cash flow this year. In addition to our results-driven focus, our strategic investments, robust client relationships, and operating excellence all positions us to navigate the dynamic market environment effectively. These efforts are designed to enhance shareholder value, drive sustainable growth, and generate long-term returns to our shareholders. Now I'll turn the call back over to Krista. Thank you.

Krista Bessinger (Head of Investor Relations)

Hi, operator. We're ready to go ahead and poll for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Maggie Nolan with William Blair. Your line is now open.

Kate Hui (Managing Director)

Hi, everyone. It's Kate on for Maggie. Congrats on a nice quarter. My first question is: I understand that you guys are not accounting for any improvement in client demand with the revised outlook, but can you provide any updates just on where overall client sentiment is right now and how it's evolved over the past quarter?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

I'll take that, this is BK. So first of all, thanks so much. And, what I can report on the client sentiment, that it has largely stayed the same, as we have observed over the last 6 months, or I, I would say even over the last 12 months. So we haven't seen-

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

... as an example, in the discretionary spends, neither any improvement, and yes, no deterioration either. Clients continue to stay very cautious, very watchful, and continue to be almost in the same zone, given all the uncertainties that surround them.

Kate Hui (Managing Director)

Okay, great. Thank you, BK. And then my next question is, it was nice to hear about the continued increase in consumption and outcome-based deals. Has your long-term mindset changed at all on, on what that percentage could eventually get up to?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Sure. This is Mike. I'll take that one. So you're, you're correct, we've already reached our goal that we put out ahead of schedule on that. While we don't have any concrete numbers to share today, but you can expect that number to be notionally higher as we move forward in the year. But I think what's so important about it is, as we're approximately at 20% right now, is also to think about it's not just that it's helping us pivot this new economic model. But if we look back at that 20%, the margin on it continues to remain robust and above average. So more to come on that.

Kate Hui (Managing Director)

Great. Thank you, Mike and BK.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Bryan Bergin with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Bryan Bergin (Managing Director and Equity Research)

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Thank you. BK, maybe a high-level question. You know, you've been in the role 6, 6+ months now. Can you give some perspective on the initiatives that you think have worked really well here versus any of those that are moving slower? Just any area, you know, added areas of emphasis for you as you're working through the second half of 2024.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Absolutely, Bryan. Thanks. So, as we clearly articulated, Brian, that we are focused predominantly on these four initiatives, what we call as three-plus-one, which I am building a through line across the company as well, along with all the colleagues in Genpact. And what I would gladly say that all of these three-plus-one initiatives, be it plus one being Genpact, building Genpact as the best credential on AI first journey, or in the three client-facing ones, the first one being partnership, the second one on Data-Tech-AI, and third, more simplified go-to-market motions. All of them are progressing really well, and some I reflected already.

What we have also done, Bryan, we've killed many initiatives, and that has helped us focus on these initiatives that are meaningfully better for our future as well as our present, and we are seeing results. Having said all of that, we are also leaning hard into innovation represented by data and GenAI, and we are at the early stages of that, and more to come on that.

Bryan Bergin (Managing Director and Equity Research)

Okay, understood. And then as it relates to Digital Operations, so a nice uptick here in 2Q, you know, that sequential uptick. As we compare that to the 3Q and the 4Q outlook, can you just maybe tease out if anything changes, the outlook flattens out a little bit? Was there anything that happened in 2Q that allowed for that strong ramp, anything one time, or just more so kind of the prudent approach you've demonstrated?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

It is more a prudent approach, Bryan. I think we continue to see earning of large deals into each quarter, actually on schedule, a little bit ahead of schedule. And really pleased with that, really pleased with how all the cadences on various deals, even this year, be it small deals, medium deals, large deals. And it is—we are, but also wanting to maintain a prudent approach as we go through the balance of the year.

Bryan Bergin (Managing Director and Equity Research)

All right. Makes sense. Thank you.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thank you, Bryan.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Robbie Bamberger with Baird. Your line is now open.

Robbie Bamberger (VP and Senior Equity Research)

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. So in terms of the large deals you noted at the end of 2023, can you maybe touch on how that large deal revenue is flowing through, in 2024 and 2025, and maybe the puts and takes of the larger deals on EBIT and gross margins for 2024?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Let me kick it off, and maybe BK, you can opine on it. So in the second half of 2024, we had a notable amount of large deals that started to ramp, that continued throughout the first two quarters of this year. I say... I apologize, 2023 into 2024. Those continue to perform very well, and we're at the point where they're ramping. Those deals typically come in at the beginning at a lower gross margin and end up at a higher gross margin as they move through the pipeline and as they mature. Keep in mind, a large deal for us typically can be about a 5-year in terms of the- in terms of their duration. So if you think about our guide for the remaining piece of the year, it really does reflect that movement as we move forward.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Very well said, and I think we'll continue with the momentum, overall, Robbie.

Robbie Bamberger (VP and Senior Equity Research)

Perfect. Then in terms of the GenAI deals, you noted 95% of GenAI bookings are on a non-FTE basis. Can you maybe dive into the pricing of these non-FTE-based contracts that you have with clients? Are they higher margin than normal contracts?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Yeah, a number of these GenAI deals are, which is also reflected in the quarter-end results that we just spoke about, are non-FT based. When we say non-FT based, they are largely more based on outcomes, outcomes they generate for our clients and how we get paid for it. And most of our outcome deals are at a higher profitability, and that's what we are anchoring the entire company on.

Robbie Bamberger (VP and Senior Equity Research)

Great. Thank you.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thank you, Robbie.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Mayank Tandon with Needham. Your line is open.

Mayank Tandon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. Good evening. BK, you mentioned that the GenAI opportunity expands your TAM. So could you maybe just give us some sense of how it does it? Is it just opening up new avenues of growth that haven't been explored before by clients? Just maybe a little bit more details around how it expands the TAM, and maybe if you could quantify it, too.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Yeah. So I think quantification might be challenging at this early stages, but it clearly what we see, Mayank, is increasing of our TAM, be it in the bookings that we are seeing or even in our pipeline or our number of solutions that we are building for clients, as we speak. And it increases TAM because of two or three reasons. One, it also expands the scope of opportunity that we are talking about, point number one. Point number two, given especially with GenAI and AI always existed, at least for a decade, I would say. But with GenAI, a lot of our clients have also woken up to this transformative opportunity, and therefore, they are engaging while we are engaging with them in different buying centers.

Given our intense client-centric approach, we get called in some of the areas where we were earlier not getting called. So those are obviously adding to opportunities as well. So our TAM in a particular client, as well as TAM in a particular opportunity within the client. And, if you look at the example that I shared in my prepared remarks, in that financial services industry case, you know, overall, the deal size, it's a large deal. When we call large deals are greater than $50 million, it's much bigger than $50 million. The deal size, pre-GenAI or post-GenAI, is much bigger in TCV.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

I'll just quickly add on. So I said in my remarks as well, our pipeline reached a record level in the second quarter, right? So if you also think about the GenAI contribution of that, has more than doubled in the six months of this year versus the full year next year. So we are seeing a net increase in our our quality pipeline, which does support the notion that BK alluded to, as a TAM enhancer to it. And then if you extrapolate upon that, as BK alluded to, with outcome-based deals and looking at the the margin on that, being higher, we feel very positive about it as a net TAM enhancer and a net revenue enhancer to our business owner franchise.

Mayank Tandon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

That's helpful. But on margins then, I would be curious, does this potentially create a nice tailwind for you and maybe helps you close the gap versus your peers that run at slightly higher adjusted EBIT margins? I think the general margin level has been high teens, low twenties. I think you have some more headroom to get there. Is this potentially a longer-term tailwind to close that gap?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Two things. So potentially, yes, right? But keep in mind as well that, you know, our, our adjusted operating income margin, right, continues to remain stable as we've taken fluid through the operating leverage that we have in our business and have made substantial investments into our, our franchise on a go-forward basis. The things BK alluded to earlier, including enhanced training, investments in partnerships and all these things, we think are a pivotal part to our company to generate long-term sustainable growth. So we'll be doing that, at least for the foreseeable future this year, and that's reflected in our numbers.

Mayank Tandon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you for all that color. Congrats on the quarter.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Surinder Thind with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Surinder Thind (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. I'd like to start with a question about the partnerships. It's quite surprising that your partnership revenue sourcing is quite low. Can you help us understand why the strategy was what it was, given that the difference between your peers is so significant? And how quickly do you think you can ultimately close that gap to get to where maybe your peers are?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Yeah. So we are moving ahead now rapidly, and therefore investing rapidly, Surinder. Given we were running many initiatives, as I also alluded to earlier, in the commentary, it was generating results not fast enough, and that is what is changing. We are very, very pleased with the investments we have made.

And given we had made many of these connections with various hyperscalers or other iconic partners, we have been in relationship with them for X number of years, but not in a focused manner. And now they see us more. We have a pretty strong leader and a very strong team, possibly one of the best team in the industry that we have put up. And we are seeing early results, and we certainly want to close this gap fast.

Surinder Thind (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

... Just any color on how quickly that can, are we talking about like a five-year journey, or is it something shorter? Just any color.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

5-year is a very long time, Surinder. We are, we are not thinking 5-year horizons, but clearly want to get to double-digit, fast.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Yeah.

Surinder Thind (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Fair enough.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

I would also just quickly bring on as well. I think we can all agree, nobody has better insight into what we call keystroke-level information and data that we have. As our clients and hyperscalers and other partners that we deal with continue to want to penetrate with their offerings, nobody has a better domain-level experience in our chosen verticals than we do. So net-net, it's a win for Genpact, it's a win for our clients, right? And it's a win for our partners. So we're putting a lot of effort and money towards that, and we think we'll see results in the not-too-distant future.

Surinder Thind (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

That's helpful. And then in terms of just the innovation pipeline, I think you alluded to some ideas. You said, you know, there's more coming. Conceptually, are you pushing towards, like, building proprietary LLMs? Are you trying to build other pieces of software related to workflow? How should we think about what's coming down the pipeline at this point?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

And I would say all of the above, and more. As an example, if you think we are one of the largest players in finance, and within finance, we are developing various LLMs, including for, let's say, accounts payable, and building many of what we are calling edge solutions internally, which are backed by many of the LLMs. So a number of those innovation ideas are taking shape as we speak.

Surinder Thind (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thanks, Surinder.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Brian Keane with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Brian Keane (Managing Director and Equity Research)

Hi, guys. Solid results here. I wanted to ask about some of the, the GenAI bookings, and I think you said 95% of those bookings are on a non-FTE basis. I know you're really not generating much revenue yet from GenAI, but how do those contracts price, you know, competitively versus the marketplace? And how do you know if, you know, on renewals and other deals, if you'll be generating the same types of revenue you're generating that was typically on an FTE basis?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Yeah. Brian, a number of these, we have, we report sole source as well. A number of these are sole source opportunities, too. But even in a competitive environment, it is part of embedded solution that GenAI is integral part of. And as we are moving and pushing the agenda more on non-FTE basis, a lot of these solutions are therefore now with these technologies, which a number of them are IP'd, and a number of them are, you know, partner solutions. You know, we are centered on what are the outcomes that they are achieving for our clients and how that cadence of outcome then also flows to us. And, you know, what we are seeing is early good results.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

BK, I may just quickly bridge upon that. While GenAI is net new and a frothy level of discussion, AI is not new to us, as well as other enhancements and productivity tools, right? It seems to be a big focus of it. We are not able or have not been able to generate the efficiencies and profitability and for our clients and for ourselves without utilizing tools. So this will continue to evolve over time. It is a net new technology, but it's really an enhancement or an evolution of what we've done in terms of using technologies to drive outcomes.

Brian Keane (Managing Director and Equity Research)

Got it. Got it. And then just to follow up, maybe I can ask the guidance question a little bit differently. You know, since the growth rate was so strong in second quarter, what would cause the growth rate to decelerate, you know, the way you, you guys guided to? Because it just seems like the momentum you have, especially with the partnerships, we're gonna see similar growth rates, if not better, in the third quarter and not the deceleration.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Yeah. I think I'll start this one. I think it really first starts with a consistent business environment. You know, keep in mind, three-quarters of our business is annuitized, so we have a very good view into that. The other 25% cohort of our business tends to be shorter duration deals that we have to earn and win throughout the year, right? So we're just not anticipating any real change in the macro business environment, and we remain prudent in terms of our guide. In addition to it is, yes, we had strong growth in the first half of the year, particularly off of better execution, namely on a lot of those large deals, which in many cases will be lapping each other.

We'll continue to monitor the business environment, but again, we remain prudent in how we think about it for the next two quarters.

Brian Keane (Managing Director and Equity Research)

Got it. Thanks, guys.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Sean Kennedy with Mizuho. Your line is open.

Sean Kennedy (Equity Research)

Hi, good evening, and congrats on the results.

... I was wondering about the go-to-market approach on focusing on data tech, AI, and GenAI solutions. So how does your team sell these solutions into your customer base? And did you change the sales incentives to help achieve these results?

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Yes, sales incentives changed, Sean, and we continue to iterate and improve on that as well as we go along. And typically, what we have is a offering hub. So there are series of offerings that we have developed based on the client set and the needs and the competencies that we have. And these offerings are, many of them are just Genpact offerings or are also on the, you know, marketplace of our partners. And then depending upon active sales motion in all of the clients that we operate in, you know, depending upon the needs, you know, there is a active activation of these offerings that happen in different client situations.

And there is, from a simplification standpoint, we've also set up certain rituals and rigor, you know, that is driving accountability and agility in the organization.

Sean Kennedy (Equity Research)

Got it. Thank you.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thanks, Sean.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Keith Bachman with BMO. Your line is open.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Hi, good afternoon, good evening. Guys, I wanted to ask first on, how would you characterize pricing in the first half of calendar year 2024 versus the same time, last year? One of your competitors, big competitors, suggested pricing is much more aggressive across the BPO landscape. How would you characterize it?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Yeah, thanks for that question. It's Mike. We've heard that before, right? So we've thought about it. We have had year-over-year and sequential, I think we're alluding to in terms of pricing, particularly in our digital operations business, right? Keep in mind, half of it is predominantly a sole source and half is not. It has been relatively consistent. We haven't seen anything irrational that's really gone on in pricing. And so I... It's hard for us to comment on others. BK, any views?

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Okay.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

No, I think you're right. It's a reasonably competitive environment, but we haven't seen any irrational behavior in the marketplace.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Okay. Related to that, would you be willing to provide what % of your business is, say, services related or customer facing? What % of that is total? Now, call center business would be a part of that, but I'm talking DX more broadly. How much do you have of service-related business?

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Yeah. So in the past, we've talked about that in terms of, I think you're asking about customer service-related business, that type of work.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Yeah.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

When you aggregate it up in the many, what we do for a lot of our customers and a lot of different flavors, and you take that aggregate revenue, it's less than 10% of our business.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Yeah, fair enough.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Of our revenue, I should say.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Yeah. Last question for me then, a quickie, is, you know, IBM and Accenture have said that, GenAI, you know, great growth for everybody in the industry, but it, it's not additive to customer demand in that, you know, in order to pursue these projects, it's coming out of... It's sourced from some other area, if you will. It sounds like you guys have a different view of that, but I just wanted to try to clarify, because, Mike, you clearly said you think it's additive to the pool, but I just wanted to make sure I heard that correctly.

Michael Weiner (CFO)

Yeah, you're hearing that, you're hearing that correctly. Again, it's hard for us to comment on other companies in terms of what their native mix of business is. But we look clearly at our pipeline, at our very defined definition of what generative AI is. We are seeing it as a net enhancer to our pipeline. You know, when BK talks about we view the TAM on this being a driver of our sustainable growth in the future as opposed to a trade-off, we're just not seeing that.

Keith Bachman (Analyst)

Perfect. Okay, many thanks, guys. Cheers.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thanks, Keith.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to the company for closing remarks.

Balkrishan Kalra (President and CEO)

Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Quarter two was another strong quarter for Genpact. As we look ahead, we will continue to drive improving execution, leveraging our Three-plus-one framework and lean into innovation. We will innovate by leveraging GenAI and other advanced technologies to deliver superior value for clients and drive productivity for Genpact. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our clients for choosing Genpact and all the shareholders for ongoing support. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.